Colleagues, I want to thank Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, for delivering our opening guiding words today.

This is the first time in history of our Assembly that we have an opening Hindu prayer. Mr. Zed has encouraged interfaith dialogue worldwide. He's read invocation in US Senate, the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC, and has been bestowed with the World Interfaith Leader Award. He was invited by the President of European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, for a one-on-one meeting to promote interfaith dialogue. He has been a panelist for on faith at inactive conversation on religious produced by the Washington Post and has been producing a weekly multi-faith discussion column faith focused since February 2011.

Colleagues, I had the honour of meeting with him this morning, and I quite enjoyed our conversation. So if you wouldn't mind, give him a big round of applause for being here today. Thank you.

---Applause

Ministers' statements. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs.

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to highlight a successful initiative that the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs is supporting to remove hazardous waste from solid waste sites in communities across the Northwest Territories.

Over the years, I have witnessed firsthand how quickly solid waste sites can fill up with piles of debris and hazardous materials, including liquid waste that is expensive and complicated to remove. Community governments across the Northwest Territories have quickly run out of room to store this hazardous waste.

To address these historic stockpiles of waste, diversion and improvement projects have been implemented in regions throughout the territory. This work will not only free up valuable space in community solid waste sites, it will also decrease the overall risk of contamination to residents and our environment.

The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs has partnered with 26 communities across all five regions to successfully access funding from the Government of Canada to advance this cleanup work. The work of implementing a cleanup clean-start program will also help us deliver on one of the key actions listed in the NWT Waste Resources Management Strategy.

Mr. Speaker, this important work began in 2023 in nine communities:

• Behchoko
• Fort Providence
• Hay River
• Fort McPherson
• Sachs Harbour
• Tsiigehtchic
• Ulukhaktok
• Norman Wells, and
• Tulita.

In total, over 600,000 kilograms of hazardous waste, including nearly 250,000 litres of liquid hazardous waste from eight of these nine communities has been removed, with waste from Sachs Harbour awaiting removal on a barge this summer. To put this work into perspective, this is enough hazardous waste to fill up more than six NHL-sized hockey rinks. It is clear, Mr. Speaker, that this partnership has made a significant difference at solid waste sites throughout the Northwest Territories.

The plan for this summer is to complete clean up in 12 to 14 additional communities throughout all regions of the territory with work remaining communities scheduled for 2025. As this cleanup work is completed, the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs will follow up with community governments to make operational improvements designed to prevent future stockpiles and reduce waste. These improvements include more frequent compaction to save space, reduce fire risk, and help manage bear attractants, and also decreases the windblown debris. Other management practices, like improved waste segregation or regular removal schedules, will also prevent stockpiles from recurring.t.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, this coordinated project allows community governments to pool their resources and address a problem that is difficult for any one community to manage on their own. By building these partnerships with community governments and the Government of Canada, we can collaboratively address many of the challenges associated with waste management while enhancing public safety and environmental protection. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Ministers' statements. Mr. Premier.

Mr. Speaker, it is my honour to stand before you to commemorate a significant milestone for Inuvialuit and all residents of the Northwest Territories. This year marks the 40th Anniversary of the Inuvialuit Final Agreement, a landmark event that we celebrate each year on June 5th as Inuvialuit Day.

Forty years ago, the Committee for Original People's Entitlement, signed the Inuvialuit Final Agreement with the Government of Canada. This historic agreement was the first comprehensive land claim north of the 60th Parallel and set a precedent for future negotiations of land, resources, and self-government agreements, not only in the NWT, but across Canada.

The Inuvialuit Final Agreement confirmed the Inuvialuit ownership of over 90,000 square kilometers of land, including nearly 13,000 square kilometers of subsurface rights. This agreement has been instrumental in preserving the cultural identity and values of the Inuvialuit people, enabling them to participate equally and meaningfully in the northern and national economy.

Under the agreement, the Inuvialuit received financial compensation and secured wildlife harvesting rights. The agreement also established the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, the Inuvialuit Game Council, and ensured Inuvialuit participation on various co-management boards, safeguarding their right to be involved in decisions affecting their land and resources.

Mr. Speaker, the celebration of Inuvialuit Day is a reminder of the strength and resilience of the Inuvialuit. It is a time to honour the hard work and dedication of elders who have preserved and passed down their culture, language, and identity. It is also a time to recognize the importance of our ongoing partnerships with Indigenous governments.

As we commemorate this 40th Inuvialuit Day, we reaffirm our commitment to working collaboratively with the Inuvialuit and all Indigenous governments to build a future that respects and honours their contributions and rights. We look forward to continuing our journey towards reconciliation and shared prosperity. Please join me in congratulating all Inuvialuit on this remarkable 40th Anniversary of the Inuvialuit Final Agreement. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Premier. Ministers' statements. Members' statements. Member from Yellowknife North.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, during a time of fiscal restraint it's easy to few arts as an extra, a nice to have when times are good but a budget line that should be cut when we're tightening our belts. Mr. Speaker, I think it's time we stopped viewing arts as simply a budget line. It doesn't need to be something that's separate from our real priorities, like education, economy, health care, housing. It can be a way of doing things and a way of approaching problems with more creativity, more humanity, more connection.

Art is more than something that professionals do on stage when they perform for the rest of us. Art is how we express ourselves. As groups, it's how we express our cultures. And as individuals, it's how we express our own unique identities. A healthy person and a healthy community incorporate art forms every single day through written and spoken stories, through songs and drum dances, through the clothing we make with materials from the land, through the murals that brighten up our public spaces. It's how we keep renewing our connection to the land and the world around us.

Now, our priority in this Assembly is to build up a healthy workforce. So I think we need to make sure arts are integrated into every stage of education and training. We all know that to teach young kids the alphabet you have to sing songs and tell stories, but even as we get older, we continue to learn better through the arts. It's more engaging, it sharpens our brains, makes us more creative in our problem solving, and it makes kids want to attend school.

If we want to develop a dynamic and robust economy, we need innovation and entrepreneurship, and that can only come from training our people to be creative. And if we're looking for competitive advantage in the global economy, our niche could be in high value cultural products, cultural tourism, film, art, telling our stories to the world.

In promoting mental health and combatting addictions, the most effective ways to reach people to inspire hope and self-confidence could be through arts and culture programs. In terms of our housing priority, there's a public housing complex in my riding which is full of boarded up units right next to a school. A local resident is spearheading a mural project to involve local children in painting those ugly boards. Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent just to conclude my statement. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. So as I said, a local resident is spearheading a mural project to involve local children in painting up those ugly boards so the children who live in those units can feel pride in where they live and feel part of a community initiative. Mr. Speaker, we should not underestimate the power of arts in achieving this Assembly's priorities. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Yellowknife North. Members' statements. Member from Range Lake.

Mr. Speaker, there's no comparing the recent surge of violent crime and drug activity in the North to any other moment in our modern history. Over the last year, my constituents and I have learned to brace ourselves when we check the local headlines because we've grown to expect a procession of drug busts, assaults, and murders each week. I know my colleagues in this Assembly and their constituents share this anxiety. The addictions crisis is reaching into all of our communities, and as the drugs flow in, the violence is never far behind. Violent crime and the drug trade go hand in hand. Total drug violations have increased steadily over the last ten years, and homicides have risen alongside them. These drug dealers are now bringing in guns, and they are certainly using them. In previous years, the RCMP would confiscate one or two handguns but last year they've seized more than 30.

There have been multiple homicides in Yellowknife this year alone where handguns were confirmed to be the murder weapon. I am pleased to see this Assembly is taking action. The new crime reduction unit has been described by the RCMP as a game changer because once it's up and running, the NWT will no longer have to rely on the federal drug crime unit for help. Instead, this NWT unit will be kept on the road, providing effective surveillance of suspected drug activity and prompt dissemination of information so they may quickly obtain the warrants needed to shut those illegal activities down.

However, there is still much work needed to be done here in this Assembly to support this new unit and the RCMP officers who put their lives to get this difficult job done. We need SCAN legislation so civil courts can pursue owners and occupants of homes who are facilitating criminal activity. We can't let anyone turn a blind eye. And there needs to be consequences, and the RCMP need to be able to quickly seize assets related to criminal activity. Housing NWT needs more tools as well. They can't just be waiting for a noise complaint when the neighbourhood knows there's something going on. We made some progress, Mr. Speaker, but we can't lose our focus. Let's keep working to give law enforcement the tools they need to keep our communities safe. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Range Lake. Members' statements. Member from Great Slave.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today I am joining many of my colleagues and will speak to the theme of housing.

Mr. Speaker, I believe that public housing can be a net good and benefit for our communities, but it must be supported within a framework that allows for collective pride and a cooperative approach. I also believe in providing smart investments into the maintenance of public housing such as retrofits and new builds as needed and where appropriate. But part of the problem here is that the fact that the federal government has continuously cut funding into public housing significantly since the 1980s. So it feels like Housing NWT has limited choices in front of them.

I also want to take the chance to share some insights that Dr. Julia Christensen outlined in a new book Housing, Homelessness and Social Policy in the Urban North. In short, the book's research finds that effective housing policies in the North must be contextually and culturally rooted. Moreover, Mr. Speaker, Dr. Christensen has spoken further in the media clarifying that Indigenous Northerners are disproportionately represented in those experiencing a lack of housing on their own homelands. This mean that is it is imperative to connect the contemporary issue of homelessness with the ongoing effects of colonialism because this issue is a social justice, human rights, and treaty rights issue all in one.

Mr. Speaker, our model and definitions on homelessness come from southern Canada so it isn't reflecting the realities of homelessness manifestations in the North. Dr. Christensen also states that homelessness does not exist on an island solely in urban centres but is, rather, interconnected to the dynamics of chronic housing needs in smaller communities. That interconnectedness also plays into the fact that NGOs in urban centres, like Yellowknife, do so much with so little to provide emergency housing. Mr. Speaker, we must provide these NGOs with consistent funding.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, not only do we need smarter investments into our public housing system, but we also need to provide consistent and annual public funding to the non-profit sector to assist in filling the gaps that our government is unable to fill on its own. I will have questions for the Minister of housing. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Great Slave. Members' statements. Member from Inuvik Boot Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, before I give my statement today, I would like to join the Premier in congratulating the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation on their celebration of the 40th Anniversary of signing the Inuvialuit Final Agreement. And to my colleagues and friends in Inuvik, have a great day and I wish I was there participating today and flipping hamburgers with them. So have a great day up there.

Mr. Speaker, I too will speak to housing today. Mr. Speaker, long waitlists for NWT residents when assessing public housing is an ongoing issue that has been raised numerous times in this House. Housing affordability and adequacy are the biggest housing challenges facing the residents of Inuvik. When people can't afford homes or the homes are not adequate, they turn to public housing.

Mr. Speaker, we know there are many people who are on public housing waitlists and, in some cases, these people are waiting years to get into public housing, but this is not publicly reported in Housing NWT's annual reports.

The Minister of housing stated in this House in 2021 that Inuvik had 73 people on the waitlist. On March 31st, 2021, the Minister of housing tabled a unit status report. In this document, it notes that there are 239 public housing units in Inuvik and 226 were occupied. At that time, Mr. Speaker, there were 13 units sitting empty - 11 were noted as needing repairs and 73 people were patiently waiting for housing units to come available.

Mr. Speaker, on April 23rd, 2024, Housing NWT signed a collaborative agreement on housing with the Gwich'in Tribal Council. In this agreement, repairs and renovations are identified under possible areas of joint coordination. Mr. Speaker, this is encouraging news. I trust that through this initiative, Housing NWT will be addressing the empty units needing repairs in Inuvik and that there are policies in place that ensure the priority for elders and people living with disabilities to access these units, Mr. Speaker.

On a positive note, it is the trend that more Inuvik clients are accessing homeownership programs and, Mr. Speaker, if we can find a way to provide some economic activity in these regions and our territory, I am sure that that number will climb. But we must, Mr. Speaker, ensure that if we're serious about solving our housing crisis, if it is, indeed, one of our government's top priorities, we must ensure that the units we own are maintained to an adequate living level. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Inuvik Boot Lake. Members' statements. Member from Mackenzie Delta.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In the mid 1960s, the Executive Council was in place to somewhat govern the people of the Northwest Territories. The majority of residents were of Indigenous descent and lived a traditional lifestyle.

This so-called government decided to intervene on our independence and our strength as a nation. It stated that they wanted to make our lives for comfortable and convenient, so they started building public housing units. The Gwich'in people, who did not want their lifestyles changed, but the government officials were persistent in bettering our lives. Now fast forward to the new millennium, we, along with the rest of Canada, are experiencing a housing crisis with no immediate solution in sight.

Mr. Speaker, that was over 50 years ago and most of these units are still being occupied today, including the unit where I moved in as a 4-year-old boy. When we first moved into the housing units, it had no running water or proper washroom facilities that we take for granted today. So we still had our daily chores. The biggest obstacle that we had to adapt to was our heat source. Prior to public housing, everyone heated their homes with firewood, and today we are reliant on fossil fuels and having to deal with global warming.

Mr. Speaker, with the intervention of this so-called governing board, they changed our lives forever. The government owns the land within the municipal boundaries. We pay for the water that once flowed freely for our use, and we even pay for the disposal of our garbage.

Mr. Speaker, the Indigenous people of the past were deceived. They were verbally promised that if they stayed in these public housing units for at least ten years, they would own the units. Today, the descendants of these peoples are homeless, in arrears with Housing NWT, and are lost souls in a land that once was called home to the strongest and most independent people.

Mr. Speaker, now that we are in a housing crisis with the rest of Canada, the government of today has to involve the Indigenous peoples because we are the ones who are impacted the most. The community membership knows what their communities needs and who are the most vulnerable residents who requires the help. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Member from Mackenzie Delta. Members' statements. Member for Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh

Thank you, Member from Tu Nedhe-Wiilideh. Members' statements. Member from the Deh Cho.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, in the last sitting I moved a motion for the Government of the Northwest Territories to recognize housing as a human right. Mr. Speaker, I believe that housing is a human right because without housing, there's no foundation. Without a place to call home, there's no structure, no stability. How can we expect people to go to school, participate in the workforce, or raise their families, to live freely, if they are inadequately housed?

Mr. Speaker, acknowledging housing as a human right implies that the government has to implement policies and programs to ensure the right to housing for all residents within the shortest possible timeframe. It also recognizes that programs and policies need to address those in greatest need - the homeless.

The mandate of the 20th Assembly has prioritized housing. This government has committed to increase housing availability, to collaborate with partners and Indigenous governments, to reduce homelessness and increase sustainable housing.

I want to acknowledge the Minister of housing is working in collaboration with Indigenous governments to address the housing crisis, and this is very positive. Mr. Speaker, I believe the Minister of housing is moving in the right direction. However, Mr. Speaker, the federal government has recognized in legislation that housing is essential to the inherent dignity and well-being of a person, and I see no reason why the Government of the Northwest Territories cannot do the same.

Mr. Speaker, we should be able to acknowledge that without housing, our people have nothing. Our housing policies and programs should be measured how well we are achieving the right to housing for all residents of the NWT. I will have questions for the Minister of housing later today.

Thank you, Member from the Deh Cho. Members' statements. Member from Monfwi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I spoke in this House about my concerns for elders, that we have elders in communities who are held into mortgages from the GNWT which they cannot afford. For these elders who are on fixed income, it's not just only mortgages but it's also public housing units that I am talking about too. For these elders who are on fixed income, once their file is transferred into collections, they are trapped with so little money - so little money they won't ever get out of housing debt.

The Financial Administration Act, the manual, provides guidance for consideration when forgiving or writing off debts. The main consideration is that the circumstances justify seeking forgiveness. The information bulletin 64.01, forgiveness and remission, provides further guidance on this. Under the information bulletin, it details that if a debtor is considered indigent, that is acceptable criteria for the government to forgive debt. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, this describes the situation of many of our elders. How is the GNWT assessing and determining when a client may not be in the position to financially pay the debt owed to the government?

Under 62 of the Act, a debt can be forgiven if the board considers that collection of the debt unreasonable or unjust or that it is otherwise in the public interest to forgive the debt or obligations. The GNWT can take steps to forgive debt to GNWT and the housing corp for elders and seniors specifically who are no longer in the workforce to alleviate debt when it has become unjust and unreasonable. I will have questions for the Minister of Finance later today. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Monfwi. Members' statements. Member from Frame Lake.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I'm going to join my colleagues in speaking to the theme of the day which is housing. I intend to put a bit of a different spin on it.

Mr. Speaker, housing is a priority of this Assembly and also one of the most pressing concerns of our residents, which many of us have been speaking to over the past few weeks. Some may not realize it, but the GNWT is actually one of the largest landlords in the territory. The government owns the land on which many of our residents' homes sit, especially in our smaller communities, Mr. Speaker. About one in three privately-owned households outside of the five largest communities in the NWT sits on a GNWT land lease. This is in comparison to just .4 percent of homeowner households within the five largest communities.

Mr. Speaker, Chris van Dyke is a resident of Yellowknife, and last month he handed in his thesis for his master of planning that he completed at the University of Guelph. His research explores this uniquely northern situation. The researcher found that more than $450,000 annually is charged for residential land lease fees throughout the NWT. Communities with a higher percentage of homes sitting on land leases also have a higher number of homes in need of major repairs. The researcher suggests that there is a need for more interdepartmental collaboration to address housing barriers and that land policies have to be a part of this consideration. The researcher advises that policy amendments are needed to facilitate Indigenous organizations' access to land and that the elimination of residential land lease fees in our smaller communities must be considered.

Mr. Speaker, the takeaway here is that since the GNWT owns the land on which resident homes sit, GNWT land policies have a direct impact on our residents' access to and quality of housing. Mr. Speaker, let's keep housing in mind when we consider land management and the policies around it. Thank you.

Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Members' statements. Member from Yellowknife Centre.